Personalize your small space

Creative use of paint and color is one way to personalize an apartment. Using funky but functional furnishings, such as a table made with a skateboard deck, is another.

Creativity fills in where cash is short to jazz up small spaces. A chandelier was created from a box spring.

Designer Kyle Schuneman's first book was released this week.

Photo By Joe Schmelzer

Creativity fills in where cash is short to jazz up small spaces. A chandelier was created from a box spring.

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BOLD NEW WORLD

Kyle Schuneman offers tips for making small spaces lively in "The First Apartment Book" (Clarkson Potter, $24.99). Among the suggestions:

Dip your toes: Start with small splashes of color, such as bright sheets on the bed. "Every room needs a pop of color, but don't feel like you have to rush into something you may not love in the long run."

Temporarily safe: Use chalkboard decals on the refrigerator or on cabinet fronts to test your commitment to big, bold patterns. "So what if it takes you a little outside your comfort zone? Simply wipe down the decals with a wet rag, and you've got a clean slate to try something new."

Avoid a void: Turn an empty fireplace into a display space. Add large plants, coral or even a display of books. "Just be sure to use something big enough to make a visual impact."

Sure, you can blame square footage and money - or the lack of both - for the boring state of your space. Or, you can point to a landlord who's long on rules and short on imagination. But those are merely hurdles to getting out of the land of bland, says Kyle Schuneman, a designer HGTV has called "a wonder boy of design." His first book, "The First Apartment Book" (Clarkson Potter, $24.99), landed on shelves this week, the day after his 27th birthday.

"People spend lot of time on fashion and expressing themselves that way, and (the home) is another outlet," Schuneman said in a telephone interview from New York, where he was finishing up design work on a storefront opening for Fashion Week.

Schuneman, a guy who grew up in small apartments in downtown Chicago and who's been reading Architectural Digest since he was 13, makes it sound easy: Make your space reflect what you like.

Rather than providing cookie-cutter templates for design, Schuneman uses 10 case studies to show how others made challenging spaces chic. Readers should write their own Chapter 11 after gleaning ideas.

"This isn't a math equation," he says of decorating. "I didn't get in the (design) business to tell people how to live. I got into it to guide them to their best life."

One first step: Buy a plant. "That starts the interaction with your surroundings." Then think about what you like, rather than your decorating style. He helps clients define their taste by looking at their wardrobes and their favorite stores, restaurants and landscapes.

"Surroundings are everything in our lives. It's not just pretty things you pick up in your life."

Turn to websites such as Pinterest, Houzz and even Etsy to stoke your imagination, and create a mood board. Then, don't be afraid to veer from your inspiration point. "Know where you're going but have the flexibility to change because things always arise," he says. "Having that design plan in mind is a good place to start."

If the landlord won't budge on painting walls, color your world another way. Painting furniture or spattering a sofa slipcover, for example, can amp up the hues beyond muted beige.

See possibilities, especially in cast-off objects.

Schuneman turned a box spring into a chandelier (the how-to is in the book, along with numerous other good tutorials) and repurposed a skateboard deck into a tabletop. The wheels from the skateboard became bookends.

Above all, make it yours. "Quiet the inner voice that's asking if other people will like this," Schuneman says. "It should make you happy first."